HANOI. – Philippine Olympic Committee President Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino on Monday asked the entire nation to rally behind Team Philippines which, despite stumbling in events it was expected to dominate, stood fighting at third place halfway through the 31st Southeast Asian Games here.
“We are hoping and praying to maintain our momentum although we lost in some sports like tennis, golf and 3×3 basketball, among others, which we had a good chance of winning gold,” Tolentino, also the PhilCycling head, said.
“We need to recover and capture more golds from the sports,” added Tolentino, who tried his best to make the rounds in venues situated distant from each other to rally behind Filipino athletes.
“We still have boxing, gymnastics, karate, athletics, basketball, weightlifting, taekwondo, wrestling and other combat sports where we could win medals,” he said.
The Philippines was a fighting third in the medals race on Sunday with 20 gold, 27 silver and 38 bronze medals. Host Vietnam was in a hurry to emerge overall champion with a front-running 67 golds, 46 silvers and 44 bronzes, followed by Thailand with 27 golds, 24 silvers and 38 bronzes.
Indonesia continued to threaten the Philippines with 19 golds in fourth place.
Tokyo Olympian and two-time world champion Carlos Yulo led the gold medal rush for the country with three gold medals as of Monday. Kim Mangrobang also made it a double with victories in triathlon and duathlon that were staged within 24 hours apart.
Tolentino told the Filipino athletes who have yet to compete to never lose hope, adding: “The whole nation is with them in this fight.
“Never give up and continue to fight for our country,” he said.
